The opinion letter of Jeanette Ross in last week’s SMDP resonates with my own personal experience in connection with sidewalk bicycle riders. When exiting the driveway where I live about a month or so ago, I had a clear path up to the top of the ramp and ascended and was watching for traffic heading in the direction in which I wanted to make a turn on to the busy street. Suddenly, I heard yelling, and turned to my right to see two teenagers, one female mounted on her bicycle and the other a male who was off his bike.
I was stunned to see them, since there was no one in sight when I ascended the ramp. I got out of my car, and they both continued yelling at me and shouting what will the boy do now, indicating that his bicycle, now laying on the ground to the side of my car, was his only form of transportation. I was so upset, and so taken aback, but also relieved that the young man was all right. I then asked him to pick up his bike and show me that it was damaged. He did, and it appeared to be damaged, but I am not even sure of that. I never once thought about the fact that they were breaking the law by riding on the sidewalk, against the flow of traffic, and personally felt responsible.
The truth is, however, that he hit me. We resolved the matter, and it was only after some time had elapsed that I began to feel I had been set up. I kept going over and over it in my mind, trying to figure out how it could have happened. I also began wondering about the laws regarding riding bicycles on the sidewalk. So I called the police, and they said it is against the law, and that both of the teenagers could have been cited. I attempted to file a police report, but the police would not take the report. I told them that a friend just told me that she knows of a location where kids do this intentionally so that their parents can sue, but that did not phase the officer, and he, in fact, said that we do not have that problem where I live.
Not too long after that, I was existing an alley from the parking lot of a shopping center between 14th and Euclid streets on Wilshire Boulevard in my car, when, all of a sudden, across my path, passed a man riding his bicycle on the sidewalk. Fortunately, I was going slow enough to avoid him, but he startled me, and I wanted to let him know that it is illegal, but I did not say a word.
Then, coincidentally, today, as I was walking northbound in the pedestrian walking path in Palisades Park, suddenly from behind me came a man on a bicycle heading in the same direction as I was, riding on the sidewalk, against traffic, and I told him that it is against the law to ride on the sidewalk. He insisted that it was not, and I repeated it, and he told me not to tell him what to do in a very hostile manner.
Furthermore, in the street, on both sides of Ocean Avenue, adjacent to the park, are clearly marked bicycle paths. I had reason to believe that he might have been homeless because of the large black plastic trash bag he was carrying on the handle bars of his bicycle, but I cannot be certain of that.
So I have had these experiences with bicycle riders riding on the sidewalk both behind the wheel of my car and as a pedestrian.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 18, 2002. Read the original PDF.